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IT'S PAINTING AND DRAWING HERE From Monday 25th. April

Sky High: Taking Bond to a New Level Daniel
Craig appeared at a special press conference and photocall held by the
‘Skyfall’ production team at a hotel in Istanbul on Sunday April 29. The
main unit have been in Turkey since April 22, and have shot sequences
in the seaside town and port of Fethiye, with further shooting due to
take place in Istanbul itself. They have also shot some sequences on a
luxury yacht called the ‘Regina’, near the port area of Fethiye. As many
Bond fans know, second unit filming has already been taking place in
Turkey over the last few weeks, in both the southern province of Adana
and in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. The press conference, attended by
members of the Turkish and international press, was held at the
prestigious Ciragan Palace Hotel, a five-star hotel in Istanbul, which
used to be the Sultan’s Summer Palace and retreat during the days of the
old Ottoman Empire. In beautiful baroque-style surroundings, the
conference saw Craig line up on stage to answer various questions from
the media, alongside Ola Rapace (who plays a cold-blooded mercenary in
the Turkish sequences), Berenice Marlohe (who plays ‘Severine’), Naomie
Harris (who plays ‘Eve’), director Sam Mendes, and EON producers Barbara
Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Sam Mendes, describing both his and
Daniel’s approach to the character of 007, said he would not have made
‘Skyfall’ without Daniel Craig because of the complexity that Craig has
managed to bring to the character. Mendes said: ‘What Fleming created
was a very conflicted character. Some of those things are explored in
this movie, because Daniel as an actor is capable of exploring them.
That was a big thing for me, having a Bond who I believed in, who I felt
could take the character to a new level’. You Only Read Twice: Craig and Fleming Speaking
at the same press conference, 007 star Daniel Craig said he and Mendes
worked closely together to develop the story for ‘Skyfall’, and to
develop the character of James Bond even further. Craig revealed: ‘We
were in continuous conversation, once Sam agreed to do it. We weren’t
supposed to talk to each other because MGM hadn’t done the deal. But we
couldn’t shut up. It was a chance for us to re-read Ian Fleming, and we
started e-mailing each other, “What about this, and what about this?”,
and that’s how it snowballed’.
At another point in the conference, the director Sam Mendes
added that he had always wanted to direct a thriller, and he emphasised
that the Ian Fleming books were indeed thrillers. He said Fleming’s Bond
was complex and depressed about the whole job of killing others. He
added: ‘If I didn’t feel I could have made something that was both part
of the Bond story and at the same time personal for me, I wouldn’t have
attempted the movie. I feel like we’ve found a story that speaks to me’.
Answering questions on Bond’s romantic liaisons in the new movie,
Daniel Craig said the film has a ‘very rich’ romance, and he also
dropped tantalising hints that Bond may reprise some of the humour that
has possibly been lacking in recent entries in the series.
Interestingly, Barbara Broccoli, in her contribution to the conference,
said that shooting in Istanbul was a deliberate choice to mark the 50 th
Anniversary of the Bond films, and she described Istanbul as Ian
Fleming’s ‘favourite city’. A short set of highlights from the press
conference was made available in a new Videoblog on the official James
Bond website, 007.com, on April 30. Mendes Promises Thrills, Action and Emotion Speaking to the new June, 2012 issue of Empire magazine,
Sam Mendes went into some further detail about what we can expect in
‘Skyfall’. He referred to his original decision to accept directing
duties on ‘Skyfall’, discussed some of the basic rules on a Bond movie,
and also gave some reflections on the balance he intends to have between
thrills, action and emotion in Daniel Craig’s third 007 movie. The
magazine revealed that Mendes and Craig, who had first worked together
on ‘Road to Perdition’, had bumped into each other again in 2009, when
Craig was starring on stage on Broadway, alongside Hugh Jackman, in the
play ‘A Steady Rain’. In a flash of inspiration, Craig had suggested
that Mendes should consider doing the next James Bond movie. Uncertain
at first, the idea had quickly grown in appeal for Mendes, and he signed
up: ‘It was pleasing that it came from Daniel to begin with. One of the
reasons I’m doing this is because I think, like a lot of people, Casino
Royale woke me up again to the possibilities of Bond. It seemed for the
first time to be a real person in a real situation. It felt anchored
again’. Regarding the content of the new 007 movie, Mendes said that
thrills and action are necessary, ‘and that’s what I intend to supply,
as well as a kind of emotional engagement that maybe you haven’t seen
before in Bond’. The plan was to see Bond ‘physically pushing himself’.
The new June, 2012, issue of Empire magazine, with some other Bond-related articles, is on sale in the UK now, priced £3.99. The Living Nightlights: New ‘Skyfall’ Locations Videoblog Bond
news came thick and fast during April. The official James Bond website,
007.com, released a new ‘Skyfall’ Videoblog earlier in the month,
concentrating on the location scouting for the movie and on some of the
second unit shooting carried out in the Chinese city of Shanghai. The
new Videoblog contained some interesting behind-the-scenes footage of
second unit Director Alexander Witt speaking about the movie, together
with members of the production team scouting for Turkish and Chinese
locations, preparing scenes, and shooting scenes on Shanghai’s main
highways. Witt spoke briefly about shooting the arrival of James Bond at
the airport, and called Shanghai an ‘amazing city’ to shoot in at
night, as it is, he said, ‘amazing for the lens’. Michael Lerman, the
First Assistant Director, reflected in the Videoblog on the challenges
of location scouting and on trying to find the ideal spot for a
sequence, and, like Witt, also praised Shanghai as a ‘special city’ with
a great skyline. Similarly, Angus More Gordon, a Production Manager on
the movie, also referred to the ‘rather unusual blue light’ found on the
major highways in Shanghai. Another treat on the Videoblog was the
inclusion of a long-shot of Daniel Craig as 007 sitting at a bar, with
the Shanghai skyline in the background, a shot that was filmed at
Pinewood Studios. From the brief evidence in the latest Videoblog, it is
clear that Bond fans are in for a visual feast when ‘Skyfall’ hits the
cinemas later this year. Bond Is Back! William Boyd is New 007 Author There
was some major James Bond literary news in early April when, in a
surprise move, the Ian Fleming estate announced that English author
William Boyd is to write the next James Bond novel. He will follow in
the footsteps of Kingsley Amis, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian
Faulks and Jeffery Deaver. In a press release issued to the world’s
media, Boyd called it a ‘once in a lifetime challenge’, and said: ‘When
the Ian Fleming estate invited me to write the new James Bond novel, I
accepted at once. For me the prospect appeared incredibly exciting and
stimulating’. Boyd revealed that he plans to set the new 007 adventure
in 1969, and that it will represent a return to ‘classic Bond’. Boyd,
who was born in 1952, added: ‘My father introduced me to the James Bond
novels in the 1960s and I read them all then – From Russia With Love being
my favourite’. Corrine Turner, the Managing Director of Ian Fleming
Publications Ltd, commented: ‘William Boyd is a contemporary English
writer whose classic novels combine literary elements with a broad
appeal. His thrillers occupy the niche that Ian Fleming would fill were
he writing today and with similar style and flair. This, alongside his
fascination with Fleming himself, makes him the perfect choice to take
Bond back to his 1960s world’. Boyd’s Bond
Shortly after the news broke that William Boyd was the new Bond author,
he spoke to various media outlets, including The Telegraph online. In
the Telegraph interview, Boyd revealed that he has been very interested
in Ian Fleming as a man for quite some time. Boyd said that he has
written pieces about the Bond author, and: ‘I knew somebody who knew him
very well, which gave all sorts of insights into Fleming’. Boyd said he
saw his appointment as Bond author as an ‘exciting challenge’ and
pointed out that he has already written two novels which deal with
espionage, and also written about spy author John Le Carre. He had also
carried out research on World War Two and the Cold War. He said he felt
comfortable putting 007 into this world, and found the task ‘not
daunting’. Turning to what readers can expect in his version of James
Bond, Boyd indicated that there will ‘definitely be ladies’ in the novel
and there has to be ‘at least two love affairs’, with very interesting
and ‘possibly deadly’ women. That is part of the appeal, he said, and
added that other key ingredients would be Bond’s relationships with ‘M’
and Moneypenny, Q section, and the various gadgets: ‘I would be a fool
not to make use of these. They are what makes the world of Bond so
beguiling’. Boyd also said that he was ‘very free’ to write his own
novel, and was not required by the Fleming estate to copy the style of
Ian Fleming. Reflecting more generally on 007, he also argued that,
after 60 years, Bond is a now global figure and shapes global
perceptions of Britain. Boyd’s Bond with Fleming and 007 After
living in Africa, and receiving his education in Britain, William Boyd
became a lecturer in English at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford University,
between 1980 and 1983. His previous novels have included A Good Man in Africa (1981) and Any Human Heart (2002), and his latest is Waiting for Sunrise, which was published in February this year. Interestingly, Boyd helped turn his novel Any Human Heart into
an acclaimed four-part drama series for the British TV network ITV in
2010, and one of the characters in this was none other than Ian Fleming.
As we noted in the JBIFC’s Newsletter back in December 2010, the hero
of Any Human Heart, Logan Mountstuart (played in the TV version
by former ‘Spooks’ actor Matthew Macfadyen), is recruited to British
Naval Intelligence to train as a spy, and is briefed by both Ian Fleming
and Fleming’s wartime boss, Admiral Godfrey. Mountstuart is also sent
on a secret mission by Fleming (who was played in the TV drama by Tobias
Menzies, the actor who was Villiers in ‘Casino Royale’ in 2006). In the
JBIFC’s view, Menzies managed to capture the character traits of the
future Bond author very well. Some further clues about Boyd’s version of
Bond may come very soon, as he will be attending as a special guest at
the famous Hay-on-Wye literary festival, held in Wales in May.

Broccoli Backs ‘Chariots’James
Bond movie producer Barbara Broccoli, currently heavily involved with
the new 007 movie ‘Skyfall’, will honour the memory of her late friend
Dodi Fayed when she brings a stage version of ‘Chariots of Fire’ to
London’s West End. Dodi Fayed, who died in the car crash which killed
Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, was an executive producer on the original
Oscar-winning movie in 1981 after Barbara Broccoli introduced him to
her movie contacts. Fayed developed a passionate interest in
movie-making and was a big fan of the Bond movies, even at one point
visiting a Bond set. ‘Chariots of Fire’ became one of the major hits at
the British box office in the summer of 1981, alongside Roger Moore’s
007 movie ‘For Your Eyes Only’. According to a report in the London Evening Standard newspaper
(April 19), Broccoli said the true-life story of the rival runners Eric
Liddell and Harold Abrahams at the 1924 Olympics resonated with Fayed,
especially the story of Abrahams, as he Fayed had a similar
understanding of what it was like to be accepted in British society.
Broccoli is working on the new play with Hugh Hudson, the film’s
director, whose brainchild it was to produce it on stage. After a
premiere at London’s Hampstead Theatre in May, it will then transfer in
June to the Gielgud Theatre in Shaftsbury Avenue, in the heart of
London’s theatre-land. On Her Majesty’s Public Service News
emerged in April of a plan by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO)
to play the world-famous James Bond theme tune as they pass by the MI6
Headquarters in a boat. According to the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper
(April 22), a boat carrying the LPO will play the iconic Monty Norman
theme tune as it passes the British Secret Service building during the
upcoming Diamond Jubilee river pageant. The music will be one of 15
individual compositions, each designed to suit a particular location
along the River Thames, which runs through the heart of London. The
80-minute journey will take place on June 3. The newspaper noted that
crowds of as many as 2m people have been forecast to line the banks of
the Thames as the Queen’s barge proceeds down the river, which will be
the highlight of a procession of about 1,000 boats. The 60 members of
the LPO, who will sail on the Symphony barge as part of the procession,
will perform various pieces along the River, including the theme tune to
Chariots of Fire, and the music will be amplified by a special
sound system. The LPO will start its journey at the Albert Bridge in
West London. David Parry, the LPO’s conductor, told the newspaper that
the choice of the James Bond theme was ‘perfect, we thought, as the
music we will be playing throughout is consciously there to stir
people’. As many Bond fans know, the famous MI6 building, located near
Vauxhall Bridge, was first seen in ‘Goldeneye’ in 1995, and also played a
significant role in ‘The World Is Not Enough’ in 1999. It will again be
a key feature in ‘Skyfall’, which includes an explosion on Vauxhall
Bridge.

Scotland Leaves Surrey Work
began in late March on taking down the Scottish ‘Skyfall’ sets at
Hankley Common, near Elstead in Surrey, after filming ended there on
March 25. A small army of workers moved on to the site to begin
dismantling the main Skyfall Lodge, plus a nearby outhouse. They also
dismantled a ground-level entrance to some secret underground stone
steps, various artificial trees which had been dotted around the
landscape, the Bond family chapel, and a stone-walled entrance at the
top of the valley. The JBIFC had a regular observer at Hankley during
the filming and just after, and paid a final visit to the Hankley Common
set on March 30. The dismantling of the Skyfall main Lodge by workers
and two mechanical diggers was in full swing, while the Bond family
Chapel further across the valley had been reduced to a ghostly metal
frame, glinting in the bright sunshine. The JBIFC understands that the
film-makers were pleased with how the Hankley Common shooting for
‘Skyfall’ went overall. The original plan had been to use the sets for
filming up to March 30, but in the end this was not necessary. The Bond
filming, and especially the final big explosion at the Lodge on the
Sunday night, was covered locally in newspapers such as the Surrey Advertiser, and was still making the local news a few days after the filming was completed. The Farnham Herald,
for example, reported that locals had heard the big explosion as far
away as Boundstone, which is a few miles away from Elstead! Did You Know? New Bond author William Boyd’s novel A Good Man in Africa (1981)
was later made into a movie with former 007 Sean Connery, and the two
men became good friends. In fact, Boyd has carved out a secondary career
as a screen-writer and film director. When he adapted Joyce Cary’s Mr. Johnson for
the big screen, Boyd also became friends with former 007 Pierce
Brosnan, who took the title role in the movie. Boyd’s first film as a
director was The Trench, and he became good friends with its star, current 007 Daniel Craig. Bond Bits: Brief News Items You May Have Missed
Samantha Bond, who played Miss Moneypenny in the four Pierce Brosnan
Bond movies, is one of the stars in a new stage version of Joe Orton’s
‘What the Butler Saw’, directed by Sean Foley, and at the Vaudeville
Theatre in London’s Strand during May. By coincidence, this is not far
from where some of the last central London scenes for ‘Skyfall’ were
shot on March 31-April 1... The
latest book by historian and James Bond expert Ben Macintyre, ‘Double
Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies’, appeared at the end of March,
published by Bloomsbury Press. Some of the amazing true-life episodes
he describes read like a 007 novel... According to the UK’s Independent newspaper
(April 28), Giles Foreman, the former drama teacher of Greek actress
Tonia Sotiropoulou, who was recently chosen to play a part in the
Turkish sequences in ‘Skyfall’, reckons she is ‘a classic Bond girl –
exceptionally beautiful with great sensuality and a kind of flow. She’s
spellbinding, which is what Bond needs’... The
same newspaper recently carried a profile of Michael Apted, the director
of ‘The World Is Not Enough’ (1999). Now 71, the Essex-raised director
recently finished the latest instalment in his ground-breaking ‘Seven
Up’ documentary series. The acclaimed series, which first started in
1964, traced the lives of 14 British children over time, and is seen as
one of the first ‘reality’ documentaries. The latest instalment caught
up with the original fourteen as they all reached the age of 56... Robert Carlyle, who played the villain in ‘The World Is Not Enough’ (1999), was profiled in the BBC’s Radio Times magazine
on March 31. When asked about his favourite TV programmes and what he
would like to bring back, he said: ‘Cracker, without a doubt. It’s never
been replaced’. The ‘Cracker’ crime series, which starred Robbie
Coltrane (who also starred in two Bond movies), gave Carlyle his first
big acting breakthrough, with his acclaimed acting performance in the
first episode... Rock
group ‘Garbage’, who sang the theme song to ‘The World Is Not Enough’
(1999), but split up about seven years ago, have reformed and are
releasing a new album, ‘Not Your Kind of People’, on May 14... Next
project for the ‘Skyfall’ villain? Reports suggest that Javier Bardem,
who plays the devious Silva in ‘Skyfall’, is set to join his wife,
Penelope Cruz, alongside Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender, in ‘The
Counselor’, a new movie set on the Mexican border about a lawyer who
ends up dabbling in the cocaine trade...
Despite being sworn to secrecy, Helen McCrory, who plays a British
politician in ‘Skyfall’, dropped a few hints about her role to the
London Evening Standard on April 3: ‘I am in the film but I
wouldn’t call myself a Bond girl. I am in Bond and I am a woman. It’s
great, and I am enjoying it tremendously. I can’t reveal too much about
my part but I think there is a lot of writing now for women who are in
their sexual prime in their forties’... Dame
Judi Dench, who has made it very clear that she has no intention of
allowing her eyesight problems to hold her back, is to return to the
London West End stage in late 2012. She is to play in an as yet untitled
play based on ‘Alice in Wonderland’, scripted by John Logan, who
co-scripted the screenplay for ‘Skyfall’... The UK’s Sunday Times (April
15) devoted a whole page to a discussion of the issues raised by the
appointment of new Bond author William Boyd, entitled ‘Sequels Are
Forever’. It noted that copyright on the character does not run out
until 2034 – at which point anyone will be able to pen a Bond story...